Cinderella Man's Princess
by JavertInMiniature
Summary: The world has a surprise in store for the Braddock family: the Great Depression. Unfortunately for the family at the moment, Mae has another surprise waiting: her first daughter. Fluff and slight angst over the birth and early childhood of Rosemarie and the beginnings of the Depression.
1. Chapter 1

**So this may or may not be the first Cinderella Man fic here? Okay, I know James Braddock was a real person, and I usually don't write fics about real people, but I saw this movie for the first time on Tuesday and I was floored. It is, without a doubt, my new favorite movie. And have I mentioned my gigantic man-crush on Russell Crowe? He's just... yeah.**

**Anyways, this story is just my tribute to the incredible heart and strength of James J. Braddock and his family. The first chapter will mostly be romantic fluff about James and Mae because, let's face it, they're adorable. I changed the date of their wedding to much earlier than it was in deal life, just because that how it seemed in the movie. Also this first chapter takes place around 2 am on December first, 1928. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Jimmy POV_

The snow swirled around my ankles as I strode home. Usually, I liked the cold, but today the cold only made my battered limbs stiffen. A snowflake melted against a particularly nasty cut on my cheek. I chuckled softly, thinking of how my appearance could help scare Mae. Was it mean? Yes. Was that going to stop me? Absolutely not.

"Jimmy?" A door opened to reveal my world, a brunette angel framed softly by electric light and moonlit snowflakes. "Jimmy what's happened to you?" In the time it took for me to screw up my face into its familiar broken grimace, she had rushed to my side and began stroking my face. Her hand came back with blood on it. Suddenly, I remembered that I must have brushed the newly formed scab too hard when I reached up to dry my cheeks of the melting snow. I buried my chin in her shoulder purely to hide that I was laughing silently. A light kiss grazed the cut. "I love you, you know."

"Of course you do," I whispered, my lips pressing into her ear. "I won."

"You ass!" She spit out quietly, indicating to me that our sons were probably awake by now. I let her succeed in pushing me backwards, but not without immediately leaning forward and planting a kiss on her lips. She rolled her eyes at me before letting them flutter shut. "You've got to stop scaring me, James," she said after several seconds. "I'm afraid that if you, God forbid, lose again, I won't believe you when you tell me."

"Hey hey hey." I backed off, setting my hand on her cheek and staring into her eyes. Not even a single snowflake dared to come between us as I stroked her face with my thumb. "I would never lie to you. You know that, right?" Her smile returned as she nodded. Suddenly feeling mischievous, I placed a swift kiss on her cheek. "I'll just mislead you slightly."

"James!" she called after me as I walked up the steps and across our porch, gently pushing the door aside and stepping into the arm electric glow of our house.

Our house. We bought it in '25, soon after Jay was born. Speak of the devil. "Daddy? What happened? Did you win?"

"You're up awful late, aren't you, Jay?" I say with mock sternness, all the while picking him up by the waist and holding him up to my eye level.

"Sorry, daddy, just… I couldn't wait to see you come home, and mommy said I could stay up long enough to see you…"

"Did she now?" My son may have only been four, but that didn't make him any less capable of lying when he thought he needed to. I looked back at Mae for confirmation; she blushed and nodded slightly. "Alright then, if you say so." I flashed her a smile before kissing Jay's forehead. "If it really means that much to you, yes! I did win."

My eldest child's eyes swelled with pride. I could swear they were now the size of my fists. "You won, daddy? You really won? Who did you beat? Did you knock him out?"

I carried him over to a chair, wincing as I set him in my lap. Mae walked quickly over to me with a concerned glance and rubbed my shoulder with a tiny hand. "Yeah, I knocked him out. Almost took me two whole rounds to do it! Tuffy… he likes the low shots. Occasionally he misses…" I winced again as Jay shifted in my lap. "I swear, he never hits as hard as when he accidentally gets me in the leg."

"Jay, sweetheart, I think you should be getting to bed about now." Ah, Mae. Always my savior.

"What? I'm not tired, mommy, see? I'm awake." The last few words were silenced by his quiet yawn. I chuckled, once again kissing him on the forehead as Mae scooped him up in her slender arms and carried him off.

"So Mae, I'm not working on New Year's Eve this year," I tried to casually begin as I stood up. Still stiff from the fight, the cold, and the four-year-old, I literally fell into my wife's arms as she walked toward me. "Sorry, Mae," I mumbled, "not as young as I once was."

As soon as I was comfortably standing on my own, Mae stared me down with an air of annoyance. "Shut your mouth. Not as young as you once were? Jim, you're 23 years old! Too old, indeed! Shut your damned mouth." I stood there laughing. Her posture softened, although her face tried to remain annoyed. She stepped forward, spinning my tie in her fingers and staring at my open mouth. "Do I have to do everything?" She stood on her toes and kissed me for a long time.

"What was that for?" I pressed my forehead into hers.

"Getting you to shut up."

I let my hands drop to her waist and began stroking her sides with my thumbs, pulling her closer to me. "Because I don't have to work on New Year's Eve, uh, Joey was wondering if we would come over to his house…" She began laughing softly. "What?"

"I should have known this would be about your boyfriend." She kissed me again, laughing and stroking my neck. "I'd be happy to go, Jimmy." There was a distant look in her eye, like there was something on her mind she just wasn't quite ready to tell me yet. I simply rested my head on her shoulder and hoped I would find out soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**So. I'm back. You know, I waited way too long to get the e-mail back from this site about adding Cinderella Man as a category. Hehehehehehehe. I've watched it four and a half times in the last four days. I've mentioned my man-crush on Russell Crowe, right? It's getting my brother really mad at me, but who cares?**

* * *

_Mae POV_

"Thank you for coming to watch the boys, Mary. You're an angel."

"Whaddya mean, Mrs. Braddock? Thanks for lettin' me watch 'em!" Mary was always extremely eager to come over whenever I needed her, due probably to the fact that she was a great fan of my husband. However, I noticed she had grown close to Jay over the past year or so. Usually, I would ask my sister Angie, but she was sick and didn't want to endanger my three-month old son Howard.

"Jimmy, where are you?" I called as I stepped out onto the porch. "Jimmy, really, this isn't funny!" I saw our car sitting in the driveway, empty. As I stepped closer to the car, a snowball flew at me from behind the engine. My husband's laughter sounded out as he stood up from his hiding place and the snow hit my shoulder. "You," I tried to say angrily as I stormed toward the car, "you had better be glad that hit my coat and not my dress." He shrugged with a goofy smile, then leaned forward with his elbows on the hood of the car.

"You aren't mad at me, are you?" My husband's puppy-dog eyes were legendary throughout North Bergen, and I thanked God regularly that our sons had not inherited them. I stepped forward, unable to shift my gaze from the spring-green pools that searched me carefully. His fingers wrapped around my elbows as I pressed my forehead into his.

"Yes, James. I'm absolutely livid." I spat out the last word, my lips barely half an inch from his. He closed the distance. Jimmy had this incredible ability to see straight through me and change how I was feeling, always for the better. Almost four years into our marriage, and he already knew everything about me. Well, almost everything.

_Jimmy POV_

As much as I wanted to ask Mae what was going on with her, I decided to let her tell me on her own terms. Leaving one hand on the wheel, I nervously drummed my fingers on my knee. Sweet mercy, this was terrifying. It was as if I didn't know her at all! What if she became frustrated with me for not asking? She seemed relaxed at the moment, but if there was one thing I knew about her, it was how well she could hide things. For now, I could only rely on how much she trusted me, if at all.

Joe's apartment was about ten feet from the door of the elevator in a perfectly straight line. Joe, however, had forgotten for the evening exactly what a straight line was. "Jim? That you out there?" Great. Not even 8:00 and Joe was nearly drunk. It was a talent I admired in him: he did not become completely intoxicated easily. However, as he stumbled out the door to greet me, I could tell he was trying. "Hey, Lucille! Why don't ya come out here and meet the family?"

Lucille had to be the second-most patient woman I knew, the most being Mae. She leaned against the doorframe as though embarrassed by her boyfriend's behavior. Truthfully, she looked like she was apologizing, which was quickly brushed off when he turned back to her. Joe first told me about her less than a month ago, and I knew Joe liked to brag about things before they happened. They couldn't have been dating that long, could they?

* * *

By 11:00 Lucille, Mae and I decided to hide Joe's flask from him. Perhaps we would tell him where to find it later, but probably not. "_Definitely not,_" I thought as he pranced around the radio belting along with a trumpet part. When Mae stepped away from me to talk to Lucille, I felt oddly terrified as Joe stumbled over to me.

"It's over, buddy."

"Whaddya mean?"

"I think your wife's onto me, plus I got a girl now."

"Joey, this was over before it started." I really only said it so I could stop panicking. I thought he was threatening some kind of joke about boxing, but honestly I never knew with him. Joe, for me, was like the twin brother I never wanted. "Although, you've pretty much always had a girl. Why is it different now?"

He put one finger in front of his mouth, then reached forward and slapped my neck twice. I watched him get up and walk toward the women, reach into his vest pocket, and, dammit, not again!

"Joe, what are you doing?" In that moment, I genuinely pitied Lucille. So what if I happened to be giggling the whole time and trying to hide behind Mae; I did pity her.

"Lucille, we've been together a long time..."

"Two weeks." It was both endearing and infuriating that Mae always said what I was thinking yet also trying very hard to suppress.

"That's long for me. Anyways, Lucille, we've been together for two weeks, but I knew from day one that this would happen. Lucille Alison Dressler, would you do me the honor of marrying me?"

Secretly, I wondered how long he had been planning this. Sure, he had the ring, but he had had that ring for at least as long as I'd known him, and he'd tried to give it to any girl who would look at him twice. A part of me deviously wondered if he would even remember this in the morning. After she jumped up and accepted the ring, hugging him and squealing, I somewhat hoped he wouldn't remember this. Caught up in the haze of everything that was happening, I barely heard the clock strike midnight.

Mae's hand slipped around mine. "Come with me," she whispered gently in my ear. I stood up and followed her across the room, ultimately unsure of where she was going with this. She stopped suddenly, letting her hands glide to my neck. She kissed me for a long time, then slowly stood on her toes and pushed her lips to my ear, saying nothing but two words.

Two words. I had heard them before, but they never ceased to surprise me whenever I heard them. First came shock, then fear, then an unmistakable warmth every time.

Two words. May I never forget each time I heard them.

Two words. They never ceased changing my life.

Two words.

"I'm pregnant."


End file.
